The Long Walk Home
by Aitrus5
Summary: Gehn and Keta make their way back to the Cleft. Prequel to Book of Atrus


The Long Walk Home.  
  
~Please...can anyone help me...? We need a healer...my wife...she is ill...~  
  
The gritty winds howled and tore at their clothes as the pair slowly trudged their way across the pitch-black desert.  
"Please, Gehn...I must rest..." she called to him over the wind, even though their faces were inches apart. They could barely see each other.   
His mouth was a grim line. "I realize that, Keta. Just a few minutes more and we'll be at the oasis."  
He held her up with one strong arm as they walked, swaying as a whoosh of air battered them sideways.  
His arm trembled as he tightened his grip on her frail body. Thin and wasted, it seemed she would be carried away from him into the eternally uncomfortable open sky.   
The hugely swollen belly she carried only hampered her meager efforts.   
"I..." she coughed suddenly, a deep wracking cough that shook him like an earth tremor. "I can't go on..." She fell to her knees, cradling his legs, fighting to stay on her feet. Her muscles felt like they would slide off of her bones.   
"Keta? Keta!" he in turn fell to his knees and cradled her to his chest. Sand grains tingled in his nostrils as he sniffed her dark hair.   
  
~Why are you staring at us like fools...? Do you not help those in need?~  
  
She coughed again, blood flecking the corners of her lips. One hand swept down to cradle the life inside her. "Just...give me a few minutes..." she gasped, holding her ribs.   
"We do not have a few minutes, Keta!" he said urgently. "We have little time before the storm truly falls upon us!"   
The howling grew louder, the sand shifted around their feet. It filled the crevices in their clothes,   
dug in between the folds of their skin, burned mouth and nose. He'd not thought to bring a torch, but it wouldn't light in this wind even if he'd had such foresight. He gripped her tightly, afraid to let her go.   
  
~ Yes, she is Amad. What of it? She is ill! Look at her, you idiots! My wife is...oh Maker, she is dying!~  
  
Her eyes were closed, breathing labored. The hands clenched around him slackened. Alarmed, he gripped her shoulders and stared into her finely boned face that seemed bloodless. "KETA!" he shouted.  
A full five minutes that lasted an eternity followed. Gehn was near panic. It had never been this bad before. He shook her, and her head flopped loosely on her neck. Her mouth was slack, forehead burning with fever.  
  
~I....I'm...please, I apologize. I am in desperate need. Please, you must help us. Don't send us away. All the others did. You are our last hope. I'm sorry!~  
.  
"KETA!"he screamed in desperation. It was carried away and lost on the screaming wind. He flung his arms wildly at the sand whipping around them, crying out in fury at the storm.   
She moaned, and he nearly sobbed when her eyelids fluttered.   
"Gehn...is the baby allright? Is it a boy....I wanted a boy..."  
He buried his head in her shoulder to wipe tears away, then gathered her in his arms. "Shhhhh..." he soothed. "I'll get you help, my love." he whispered. "No matter what the cost. Do not worry."   
She looked up at him through glassy eyes that did not see and smiled.  
  
~I'm sorry, Keta. I...I don't know what to do...I don't know what to do! Why!? Why did they have to cast you out?~   
  
Oblivous now to the storm which raged around them, he headed for the cave, and the oasis within. Strong and proud, he walked unflinchingly into the piercing winds and gritted his teeth against the storm that  
threatened to scour the flesh from their bones.   
Keta was so light, he barely had to make an effort to carry her. He would give his very soul right now for a linking book. Anything to get out of this cursed desert. She didn't belong here...  
The cave came into view, black volcanic rock looming over them with the suddeness of a predator. It hadn't changed at all.  
  
~Damnable, ungratefull, savage, arohtahn laws! So I am not of the Amad. I am of something better.~  
  
"Here, we will be safe for the night." He layed her down behind a small spear of a rock and spread his cloak out. He had to practically pry her arms off of him, so strong was her grip. "I'll go get us some water."  
A faint murmer was all that came from her lips, and he hurried away to the small pool nestled in the center.  
He cupped his hands in the pool and washed his face, nearly drowing himself in the pleasure of how good it felt to be cleansed. His hands fell to his sides and with a curse, he realized he'd forgotten a cup for her.   
Fetching it from his pack, he filled it full, and made his way up the sandy slope to where his wife lay.  
She groaned as he eased her head up, cradling it in his lap.   
"Drink, my love. You need to have water."  
She opened her eyes and drank deeply, tilting her head back, then collapsed back onto his lap, the cup falling to the sand.   
She saw him smiling tenderly at her upside down when she opened her eyes a few minutes later.  
  
~Just as I was shunned for my mother's blood, my child is shunned for his mother as well.~  
  
"Where are we?" Her voice was raw.  
"In a cave, not far from our destination."  
"I...something's wrong, Gehn. The sickness is getting worse. I...I don't think I can walk any longer." Her voice glimmered with fear.   
"It is all right. I will carry you." Gehn said softly, looking down at her.   
"There's something you're not telling me, Gehn."  
"Even upside down, you can read my eyes like they were printed on a page."  
"And you still manage to sound like your joking when I know you're being serious." she grinned weakly.  
"Don't speak so much. You'll exert yourself and fall unconcious again." His worried look hiding near panic chilled her down to her core.   
"Why are we here, Gehn? Where are we going?"  
He fidgited, not looking at her. His hands idly stroking her hair, tightened suddenly.  
  
~They tolerate you because you are one and they are many. You have no power here. They, with their strange technology and wonderous ways...they are the Amad, in their language. Wanderers.~  
  
"Please, husband." She looked upside down into his pale eyes. "We did not leave the city only to   
go to a cave and pray to spirits?"  
He shook his head. "No one would help us." he said softly, pursing his lips. "You are ~Amad~." he mimicked, scowling. "Fools."  
"Do not blame them, Gehn. They do not understand our ways." She coughed, holding her ribs as knives of pain slid between them.  
He massaged her temples. "Neither did I, but I stayed."  
"Well, you had to work your way out of debt." She grinned at him.  
"Debt." he snorted. "Is that what you surfac-" he caught himself. "Is that what you call slavery?"  
  
~We rescued you, pale one. Without our aid, you would have died, burnt to your blackened bones. Therefore, we own you. We don't care about your story. We don't care about your past. All we care about is that strong back of yours.~  
  
"I always wondered what such a strange man was doing lying down in the sand with no supplies, and little water in the middle of the desert."  
"My ways are just as mysterious as yours." he chuckled.  
His eyes widened as she choked and bloody phlegm shot from her mouth to land on his vest. He hurridly turned her over and pounded her back as she coughed and retched.   
Anxiously, he wet his cloak tip and wiped her mouth like a baby. "I told you not to exert yourself." he admonished.   
She gasped and lay back on his lap, moaning softly. "Oh Gehn..." Tears appeared at the corners of her eyes. "What if the baby dies...?"  
"I'm more concerned with you right now." he said gruffly.   
  
~You are not of the Amad, yet we allow you to wander the desert with us. You owe us your life, and you repay our generosity by taking one of our own to your bed. You, with your pale eyes and skin-that-does-not-burn. The mother is tainted. The child will bring ruin.~  
  
"Here." she said, feebly grabbing his hand. "Come feel what wonder you and I have created."  
Gehn's eyes flared in shock and he nearly yanked his hand away as she placed it on her skin.  
It was warm, like a pillow after use, and slightly clammy. She moved it around her swollen belly and he felt a unique feeling of revulsion and fascination. This was creation of another kind than pen and ink. This was something alltogether different.   
He gasped softly as a vibration trembled through his hand and up his arm.  
He took his hand and looked at it, feeling the aftermath of the touch, sudden visions of possible futures rampaging through his head. The possibilities, the branches that could grow from this root...   
"Fascinating." he said simply.  
She laughed softly, then groaned when her ribs dug into her lungs. "Trust you, husband, to simplify what demmands complexity."  
"What else can describe it?" he said, uncomprehending. "It is...~fascinating~. That is all I need."  
  
~Fine, you fools. We don't need you. I've learned all I can. We'll leave, Keta and I. Make our life together. Maybe I can finally tell her the wonderous reality of the truth without her laughing in my face for having married a man who's suffered from sun stroke too long.~  
  
She laughed again, then her face grew somber.  
"Gehn...please. Tell me. Where are we going?"  
It took him a full minute of a multitude of facial expressions, some sad, most angry and confused. She waited quietly.  
She blinked as he drew a deep, shuddering breath and murmered something.  
"What was that?"  
"We are going to see my mother."   
Her mouth dropped open. "I...I didn't know your mother was alive."  
"I don't know if she is either. But...knowing her..." his mouth turned into a snarl. "She can survive a disaster. She'll be there. In that miserable worm hole."   
"Where? Gehn, you're not making sense."  
"She's a healer. We'll go there, and she'll help you. She has to help you. I'll make her help you." His voice was curt, demmanding an end to the conversation.  
Keta opened her mouth, and closed it again. Clearly, this topic was one best broached carefully.  
"Will your father be there?"  
  
~I am eight. My father is dying. He is sick, and choking. Mumbling feverishly in his sleep. He is sick.  
I am watching my father waste away...~  
  
Gehn flinched visibly and turned his head away, eyes tightly shut. She groaned, only partially because of the pain. "I'm sorry, Gehn." she said quietly. "I didn't know your birth-parents were a source of hurt for you. I didn't mean to cause you pain, husband."  
"It is all right." his voice rasped. "You don't know. I never told you. I suppose I should have..."  
"You can tell me when you think you can tell me, husband." she said quietly.   
Her legs suddenly spasmed, muscles clenching so tightly she gasped silently in terror. Sweat poured off her face. "Ahhhh...ahhhh..." she cried softly. "Geeeeeehn..."   
Gehn was in agony, face crumpled like he'd been kicked in the stomach. He nestled her in his arms and continued to pour water down her throat, easing her pain. She moaned in agony, body twitching  
spasmodically, face red with fever.   
He wished he knew how to comfort her....and then, disgustingly and helplessly ironic, it came to him.  
  
~Keta, of course I'm always writing about the D'ni. How else can I remember what to bring back?~  
  
"...and that is how Kerath tamed the great lizard and brought it back to the D'ni capital."   
She clung to him with all her strength and chuckled softly. "You tell such wonderous tales of them. What a wonderful...place...D'ni seems..." she gasped. "As always...you've no gift for storytelling...but your material is wonderful..."   
"It is no story, Keta." he said quietly.  
"I understand..." she nodded. Her eyes fluttered alarmingly.   
"Keta?!"  
"I..." she coughed, lips flecked with blood. "I would like to go there, someday. With the...baby. Will...will you take me there?"  
He looked down at the wonderful creation in her belly that was most certainly not helping her condition.   
"You're getting worse by the minute." he stated. "We're leaving."  
"But....I...I can't walk...." she sobbed. "I'm sorry, Gehn."  
"You are NOT going to die." Gehn picked her up in his cloak, and cradled her gently once more.   
He looked out at the swirling sands, and the star-lit sky. The winds had died down and the small volcano in the distance, no more than a day's walk, was visible.  
"By Kerath, you are NOT going to die." he shouted at the tiny cleft he knew lay within.   
The tall figure gently held the fragile woman in his arms, and started the long walk home.   
  
~What is it? Mother? Where's Keta? What's wrong?! I can see the child is fine....Don't touch me, just let me through...........Why isn't she moving? By Kerath, mother, what did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?!~   
  
  
The End. 


End file.
